Government Must Provide Doctors to Tribe Under 1868 Treaty

The federal government owes the Rosebud Sioux Tribe a duty to properly staff the emergency room in its reservation hospital, a federal district court in South Dakota said Monday.

Language in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie that requires the government to furnish “to the Indians the physician” compels it to provide competent physician-led heath care to the tribe, the opinion by Chief Judge Roberto A. Lange of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota said.

The Rosebud hospital’s emergency room closed in 2015. Citing noncompliance with Medicare conditions, Indian Health Services placed it on divert status, ...